By Sean McDaniel: Former super featherweight champion Kevin Kelly pointed out recently in an interview that WBA light welterweight champion Amir Khan (23-1, 17 KO’s) won’t be able to beat WBA light welterweight interim champion Marcos Maidana (29-1, 27 KO’s) without trading shots with him and actually fighting him. Khan, and his legions of boxing fans in the UK, think he’s going to be able beat Maidana without getting hit. I don’t know how Khan can do that, because the last time I checked, he’s not invisible. Khan has great speed, there’s no question about it.

However, his speed never prevented him from getting hit by the better fighters that he’s been matched against. Khan always gets hit and gets hit hard at times. That’s the whole problems. Since Khan isn’t likely going to be knocking out the steel-chinned Maidana on December 11th, it means Khan is going to be there for Maidana to land his big power shots for 12 rounds. Khan won’t be able to win rounds by running all night, and he can’t run for the full 12 rounds without stopping at some point and catching his breath.

Khan’s stamina doesn’t look nearly as good as it was when he was fighting at lightweight. He now looks tired by the midpoint of his fights. Maidana is going to make Khan even more tired by putting a lot of pressure on him by coming after him with power shots. khan is usually able to move around the ring with ease due to his opponents not putting a lot of pressure on him. However, Maidana will be putting pressure on him and quite a lot of it. I don’t think it’s possible for Khan to beat a guy like Maidana without getting hit.

Maidana cuts off the ring too well, and Khan doesn’t have the stamina to run for 12 rounds. Like Kelly says, Khan is going to have to trade shots and when that happens, I have doubts that his chin will hold up to the monstrous shots that Maidana will be hitting him with.